Telepocalypse

Tits and bits

I was amused to see how Cingular are trying to distance themselves from any services that might actually make money. The dirty secret of the ISP industry is that the profit is all in illicit chat, dirty pictures and finding ways to get high or get laid (ideally both, simultaneously).

The irony is that the telcos with their closed-network closed-system mindset have fallen into a trap. A true end-to-end network operator doesn’t get their brand tarnished by the data that flows over their network. When compelling content equals sex, gambling, porn and general vice, you can’t have it both ways.

Perhaps the solution is to have a tiered portal model; the Yahoos, AOLs and MSNs of the world carry the nudge-and-wink businesses within the framework of the carrier portal. (I’m using “portal” in its loosest sense here, as a collection of voice and data services.) The carriers then get referral kickbacks for delivering customers to the services that their own brands can’t be associated with.